Dulwich Hamlet 1 Eastbourne Town 0

Dulwich Hamlet 1 Eastbourne Town 0
Isthmian League Division One South
Tuesday 4th December 2007

…look, love, what envious streaks do lace the severing clouds in yonder east: night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. Those misty mountain tops those that Dulwich must climb to seize the fable chalice of promotion, that russet dawn perhaps harbinger of promotions dreams taking solid shape riding on the back of a brace of victories, narrow in conclusion, yawning like a chasm in execution. Victory over a struggling, yet tenacious, Eastbourne Town, a marked improvement in the quality of opposition from tanned Leatherhead the Saturday before but seemingly ground into the rut of defeat which may yet condemn them to a swift return to whence they came, the Sussex County League. That tonight did not end in an ignominious crushing was due much in part to an virtuoso display from Gregg Nessling between the sticks, his custodial masterclass sometimes inspired by Saint Jude.
With Meshach Nugent back from his brief suspension, Dulwich’s attack bore the hallmarks of a battering ram with the Nugent proving the first wave of attack in the vanguard with Shawn Beveney and Stanley Muguo upon the second, their broadsword thrusts completed by the lightning rapier parries of the quicksilver duo of Sebastian Schoburgh and Henry Darko. But Eastbourne had made the journey up from the south coast in firm frame of mind, keen to dispel their poor run of form which had seen win just twice in the league all season and shut out the oppositions’ goalscorers in all but two of those games. Indeed the first of the chances fell the way of the Bourne, though it was far from clear cut, with Mark Goodwin latching on to a hurried, miscued clearance from Sheikh Ceesay but lashing the ball wide from a goodly distance.
Dulwich had been effective without being incisive but slowly and slowly they began to make inroads into the Eastbourne heartlands. On the quarter hour mark a rip-roaring strike from a rampant Nugent on the charge down the left, though the acute angle was not to his favour, seemed bound to whizz in under the belly of the bar until Nessling stretched as if by the rack to turn the ball over.
Pedantic refereeing saw young Henry Darko the first into the book as he refused to give up on a wildly overhit pass, challenging ‘keeper Nessling for the ball close to the touchline, only to be penalised by the fastidious whistler Mr Crouch. Too often for Hamlet the passes found only an opponents’ boot allowing Eastbourne the chance to build their own attacks, neat, slick football as smooth as a sonata but lacking crescendo. A rare chance came not from the stylish but from the straightforward, a booming throw-in flicked on at the front of the six yard box. The goal loomed ahead of Liam Baitup, eight yards out, but he spared Ceesay a save as he slashed and missed at the bouncing ball.
As the half wore on, Dulwich upped the tempo but symphony in approach turned to cacophony of error in front to goal. Shawn Beveney danced his way to the edge of the penalty area but when the chance screamed shot his ears were deaf. Trying to wriggle his way through a yellow morass ahead of him, the ball squirmed from his possession. Breaking on the right, the quicksilver Sebastian Schoburgh whipped over a deep to the back of the box, met up the head of Meshach Nugent but hurtling wide of Nessling’s right-hand upright. The combatants swapped chances, an Eastbourne breakaway was spearheaded by Baitup, the ‘Bourne forward powered upfield but unable to shake off the close attentions of Ricky Dobson, Hamlet’s left back doing enough to shadow him wide and force him to fire off a blank that went well wide. A moment later Dulwich had forced a corner but the delivery was too much and though Shayne Mangodza stretched like Armstrong to get his head to the ball it was never going to be anything but a goalkick.
A half-time rallying call and Hamlet efforts were redoubled for a second half that belonged in the main to the hosts. The last strains of the restart whistle had barely faded from hearing when pass lamped across the area was pulled back by Beveney into the path of a stampeding Stanley Muguo, a fierce strike matched by Nessling’s smart diving low to his left to paddle the ball past his post. The resultant corner found its way to Beveney but his effort missed the mark. Baitup chanced his arm with a looping lobbed effort to rouse Ceesay from his reveries, the young custodian coolly plucking the ball from the air as yellow vultures hovered.
Blood and thunder, highball at the gallop, ball in the box pronto – Dulwich began to show their belligerent face. Nugent chased down a pass back, Muguo chipped in the loose ball, Darko spinning in the air to try and connect with a bicycle kick but to no avail. No rest for Nessling as he denied Dulwich once more with a save that belonged to genius, a follow block that belonged to fortune as he kept out Beveney’s crashing close range drive with his face. Befuddled and bemused, Nessling was spared further heroism when Muguo returned the ball into the danger area, aiming for Nugent’s head though the cross eluded the striker by a gnat’s wing.
For the breaking of the deadlock, Dulwich were once more indebted to their inspirational skipper, Beveney gathering the ball some 40 yards from goal, sidling past defender after defender with that sailor’s swagger before he hit the boost button. As he arrived at the brink of the box, he drew back his bow and unleashed a flaming arrow that found its quarry with unerring accuracy, the back of the despairingly diving Nessling’s net inside the upright.
A deep long throw from Luke Denton had Hamlet’s hearts in mouths as Ceesay failed to connect properly with his punch but protection from Dulwich’s defence spared any blushes. Venturing forwards, down the right Sol Patterson-Bohner whipped a dangerous cross low into the six yard box, Adam Davidson a saviour as he lashed the ball away from the toes of Schoburgh. Will o' the Wisp Schoburgh provided service from his wing twin; Bill Chattaway recently arrived from the bench to replace Darko. Nessling though had regained his senses and magnificently tipped the ball away from the Hamlet man’s head. Thick and fast came the chances. Beveney a quick pirouette in the box but, no, a shot at the keeper.
Chattaway spurned an inviting opportunity shortly after, a flayed shot rising over the crossbar from 10 yards out. The nemesis Nessling continued to deny the Hamlet pulling off save after save with monotonous regularity an excellent double save in the 71st minute, thwarted first Nugent then Billy Chattaway in quick succession. In the final throes the turbulent Nessling went full stretch to tip behind a cross-shot from Meshach Nugent and, just before the final whistle, Billy Chattaway fluffed a shot in front of an open goal but it mattered not a jot as the Hamlet promotion pantechnicon found itself back on track once more.
Teams:
DHFC: Sheikh Ceesay; Sol Patterson-Bohner; Ricky Dobson; Benson Paka (Lumumba Amena 90+1); Shayne Mangodza; Steve May; Shawn Beveney (Capt.); Sebastian Schoburgh; Meshach Nugent; Stanley Muguo; Henry Darko (Billy Chattaway 65)
Substitutes not used: Gbenga Sonuga; Scott Edgar; Tim Roberts (GK)

ETFC: Gregg Nessling; Adam Davidson; Chris Dicker; Luke Denton; Alex McKay; Peter Featherstone; Danny Simmonds (Capt); Andy Ducille; Liam Baitup (Peter Cooper 79); Mark Goodwin; Andy Wilkinson (Graham Holman 70)
Substitutes not used: Brad Manton; Nick Pearmine; Steve Dallaway

Attendance: 239

Officials:
Referee: Mr Ian Crouch (New Eltham)
Assistant Referees: Mr Dele Sotimirin (Loughborough Junction) & Mr Phil Stevens (Streatham)

Goalscoring:
1-0 Shawn Beveney 59th minute

Leatherhead 1 Dulwich Hamlet 2

Leatherhead 1 Dulwich Hamlet 2
Ryman Isthmian League Division One South
Saturday 1st December 2007

Barely had the last dregs of the fine Freedom Ale on sale behind the Tanners' bar slipped down the throat than Dulwich were in front as Sebastian Schoburgh's pace on the right proved fatal for a flat-footed defence seemingly strangers to one another. A precise drive low in the bottom corner of the net and with just 38 seconds on the watch Dulwich had the lead. That advantage was doubled on the quarter hour when Henry Darko controlled an excellent long crossfield pass and with green shirts in abeyance, took the ball under his spell and struck the sweetest of drives that had Tanners' custodian Aaron France beaten once more.
Though Leatherhead had the ball in the back of the net almost instantly from the restart as a mishit shot from Ben Shannon struck Ryan Rummery standing in an offside position, the centre-forward brazenly tucking the ball past Sheikh Ceesay though his muted celebrations suggested he knew the inevitable flag would follow.
That rare chance for the hosts served only to sandwich further chances for the Hamlet with skipper Shawn Beveney twice going close to extending the lead, first with a rasping drive that shaved the crossbar as the ‘keeper stretched as if on the rack. The overworked France back in the thick of it when a quick throw from an on the ball Billy Chattaway made its way to Beveney, a fierce drive taking an awkward bounce on the chewed turf ahead of the ‘keeper who did well to get down and shovel the ball past the far upright.
Early pressure from the Tanners, now on more intimate terms with their colleagues after 45 minutes of solo dancing, was comfortably dealt with by the Dulwich defence, paving the way for a lightning breakout down the right by the fleet-footed, skating across the ragged turf with ease before hammering a low ball into the six yard box that was almost turned into his own net by a stretching Ryan Palmer. Moments later and Schoburgh was scampering away again on the flank, a young colt with carthorses in his wake, whipping the ball deep, too deep perhaps until Stanley Muguo rescued the situation, pulling the ball back to Beveney whose close range effort was blocked at the last by a desperate tackle.
The torture continued for the Tanners left flank, probed then breached by Schoburgh once more. Chattaway on the left, chipped back his wing twin’s back into the six yard box where Muguo made the ball with a muscular header that had goal sewn into every stitch of the ball until France diverted himself in the air to somehow turn away the ball at the very top corner of his net, a save to savour indeed.
Aided and abetted by a pernickety referee who saw fouls where others could not, the hosts began to enjoy a spell of territorial domination, but with only the incisive, lively Alex Tiesse rising over the mediocre in the Leatherhead vanguard, Dulwich seemed content to soak up the pressure. the paucity of chances gave Ceesay little of note to trouble him, the young Hamlet custodian confidently plucking Leatherhead corners from the heads of taller Tanners with the ease of gardeners lopping the heads of weeds. Best chance came the industrious Tiesse twisted tortuous turns past the limpet-like Ricky Dobson, clipping the ball in towards Rummery but though the centre-forward rose highest his header possessed neither the power nor the precision to give Ceesay anything but a routine save to pull off.
The second half was dying like the embers of woodman’s but then the misfiring Rummery finally made way for local lad Billy Marshall, the young whippersnapper adding a bite to a toothless attack and breathing life into the corpse of Tanners’ hopes.

“I had fed the fire and stirred it, till the sparkles in delight
Snapped their saucy little fingers at the chill December night;”

However the rescue mission had all but failed in its objective but then, as 90 minutes had almost ticked by, that troublesome terrier, Marshall, threw a lifebelt in the direction of his drowning team. Gbenga Sonuga’s rash challenge on his teenage tormentor giving Leatherhead a penalty and the chance to narrow the deficit with still time to rescue an unlikely point. Marshall himself stepped up to the spot, lashing a ferocious drive straight for the top corner, Ceesay stretching every sinew to somehow turn the ball against the upright but fortunate favoured Marshall as the ball bounced back out to where he waited and he had the prescience of mind to slot the ball away into the opposite bottom corner.
Clearly roused Hamlet marched back across the half-way line and deep into Tanners’ territory. Like a juggernaut hurtling through the night, Muguo battered a path down the left, powering his way to the backline. A clipped pass back was met by Beveney, streamrolling through a green-shirted barricade, to hammer the ball home despite the best efforts of a diving France who could only divert the ball into his own net. As the officials ran back to the half-way line for the restart, the assistant referee was treated to a flow of industrial inventive from Leatherhead’s skipper Scott Bennetts but it seemed as it that was that until referee Mr Lennard chose to consult his colleague. What transpired provoked rage in the Hamlet camp, inspired last-gasp hope in that of their opponents as the man in black reversed his original decision and instead awarded a free kick to Leatherhead back in their own penalty area for reasons unbeknown to all but himself. Clearly rattled Dulwich found themselves on the back foot for three minutes of a concerted green barrage but if luck had favoured Leatherhead in defence, in attack it would forsake them.

Teams:
LFC: Aaron France; Carlo Castrechino; Steven Elliott; Ryan Palmer; Asher Hudson; Alfie Kamara; Ellis Conroy; Scott Bennetts; Ryan Rummery (Billy Marshall 75); Alex Tiesse; Ben Shannon (Scott Forrester 64)
Substitutes not used: Matt Jones; Tony Martin; Adam Bernard

DHFC: Sheikh Ceesay; Sol Patterson-Bohner (Gbenga Sonuga 60); Steve May; Shayne Mangodza; Ricky Dobson; Benson Paka; Stanley Muguo; Billy Chattaway; Shawn Beveney; Sebastian Schoburgh; Henry Darko (Scott Edgar 79)
Substitutes not used: Junior Luke, Jefferson Jackson, Tim Roberts (GK)

Officials:
Referee: Mr Harry Lennard (Eastbourne, Sussex)
Assistant Referees: Mr Gary Dodd (Walton-on-Thames, Surrey)

& Mr Stefan Malczewski (Ashtead, Surrey)

Attendance: 193

Goalscoring:
1-0 DHFC Sebastian Schoburgh 1st minute (38 seconds)
2-0 DHFC Henry Darko 14th minute
2-1 LFC Billy Marshall 90th minute